Passionate
by JEK623
Summary: When you're passionate about something, you pursue in it. And Nellie's a lucky duck in comparison- she's stuck with hotshot quarterback Blake Jenner for Duets week. And spending all of this time with him has sent confused whirs in her stomach. But he's dating head Cheerio Shanna Henderson. Will Nellie get what she really wants in the end?


**A/N: I own nothing. I love Blellie (as you already know), they are my latest project. This kind of reminds me of a Tike fic I read once upon a time, with the whole "Other Asian" incident. I really appreciate this fic so let me know what you think. Thank God for the "Ballad" episode:)  
I don't own the songs I'm using ;D. You'll have to just wait and see.  
I came up with the awkward poem on a whim. All random. **

**-JEK623. Enjoy! :)  
_**

_**.Monday. **_

"Just admit you like him, Nell." Abraham concedes. They were in the choir room rehearsing for sectionals, but no one was really interested. Mr. Schuester was in a meeting, so they had to wait for him to return so they could clarify their set list. But her friends were using it as an excuse to get her to admit her crush on infamous quarterback Blake Jenner. But she was afraid to admit it when Shanna Henderson was hanging off his arm in her Cheerios uniform, laughing at something Charlie Lubeck was saying.

She could never top that, being popular and pretty. Her clique barely made it halfway up the social ladder, and Blake was king at the top. So there wasn't anything she could do. And it didn't help that they hadn't spoken to one another since sixth grade year. When Blake discovered _developed _girls and popularity. And where football could get him. With that, he ditched her for Michael Weisman and the football team.

And he only joined Glee because he needed credits if he was even thinking about graduation next year. And the Cheerios only joined the mix because it meant being with Blake, Michael, Charlie and Maxfield Camp. The top-four football stars.

"Nell." Dani snaps her fingers in front of the dark haired girl's face. Nellie snaps her attention away from their highnesses to see Dani's amused expressions. The girl-Beiber look-alike had her arms crossed defiantly over her chest with raised eyebrows. Ali wheeled up to them and immediately burst into laughter when she saw Nellie glancing at the popular clique at least thirty feet away. Nellie looked down and blushed.

Abraham caught her chin, "Come on, Nell. If you admit it, we'll leave you be." The red-highlighted boy promished, giving her an encouraging smile.

"No you wouldn't!" Nellie exclaims, earning a few glances from the rest of the people in the room. She looks to the floor, her cheeks staining a darker cherry. Abraham just laughs and Ali clarifies, "Yeah, we wouldn't."

Dani grins, poking Nellie in the stomach, "You like him! You like him!" All the while doing a cute little party dance in the corner of the room.

"Is this Embarrass Nellie Day or what?" She mutters under her breath, running a hand through her dark chopped locks. She glances to the front of the room, when Mr. Schue comes in, uncapping a black erase marker as he dropped his leather messenger bag on the piano as he walked to the small board. _"Ballads"_ he wrote on the board.

"Great," Nellie mutters, "A love song."

"Who said that?" Schue turned around, a small smile capturing his lips. Nellie blushed, glancing at the floor before raising her hand. She looked apologetic for being sarcastic. Everyone glanced around with raised eyebrows. Nellie barely spoke to anyone but her friends, unless she was being asked an intelligent question. (Unlike the joking manner the Cheerios pull.)

"Well, Miss Veitenheimer, you're right, yet wrong. Not all ballads are love songs, but most are." Schue grins, overlooking the rest of the group. They were either looking at him or at Nellie, whose gaze still remained on the floor.

"She talks?!" He hears one of the Cheerios, Lily Mae whisper. He rolls his eyes, not bothering to pull a fight now. He picks the hat off the top of the pianist's head and pulls out fourteen slips of paper. He passes them all out accordingly.

"Write your name on the slip. Put your name inside the hat," He gestures to the plaid fedora in his hands, "And then someone will choose a partner and you'll hold a budding romance for the week." he smirks at all the kids who quickly scrawled their names on the white sheath and ran up to put their name in. They seemed more excited than his last group, which brought a sad thought to his brain about the bickering Puck and Mercedes or diva Rachel Berry who had an awkward school-girl crush on him that week. _Never again. _he shakes his head of the memory.

By then the last contender had stuck their name in and Mr. Schue snapped of his reverie, "Okay, Aylin, why don't you start?" He gives the hat a small, yet violent shake. The girl strutted up in her ripped skinny jeans, giving the group some action as she plucked a small slash of paper from the pile at the bottom of the hat. When she splits the half-folded slip apart, a smile lights up her face with a giggle escaping. "Shanna!"

The blond clapped giddily at the find. Schue grinned, _Santana and Brittany. _He glanced around the room and found the boy in the middle of the room, "Maxfield?"

He practically skipped forward, faking enthusiasm, earning some laughs. He digs his hand to the bottom. "Taryn." The tan girl gives him a short smile. They were always close, lucky them.

It flew by through the next set of names. Dani and Abraham. Ali and Lily Mae. Tyler and Charlie. Mario and Michael. Schue looked around the room, "Who's left?" Two hands shot up, from completely different sides of the room. One was a boy, with caramel hair and a varsity jersey. The other wore dark attire, with short chopped locks.

"And last but not least, ladies and gentlemen, Nellie and Blake." Nellie reluctantly stood up, her cheeks tinted pink as she sat in Shanna's old chair, that was pushed a little too close for comfort, so she slips it away a bit. He notices and glances at her, giving a smirk, and pulling the leg of her chair so she's flush against him. No one really notices this, but Abraham practically fell out of his chair laughing and Ali is biting her lip. Dani does a small victory dance.

"And the theme for this week?" Schue asks with a grin, "Passion." he writes the word on the board for emphasis.

Nellie can feel Shanna's glare shooting through her, and she wishes she were invisible. She doesn't move away this time, but scoots to her right, so half of her ass is still on the chair, while the other hangs in midair. Blake rolls his eyes, but inside he's kicking himself. He thought it'd be funny, that she'd laugh and it would all be good. But he can see now that she's trying to scoot as far away from him as possible.

"Alright, you can discuss ideas with your partners. I want at least _two _song ideas for tomorrow so we can narrow it down to the best song for each couple." With that, he began talking to the pianist and the room explodes with talking. And over half of that gibberish was _not _about song choices. Guys flirted, girls gossiped or ignored the guys.

"She. is. dead." Shanna declares quietly to Aylin, who is watching as Blake talked and Nellie scribbled in the notebook they shared, muttering few words and looking up every few seconds, just to make sure he was still there. Aylin glanced over at her blond friend and smiled deviously, "I think I have a plan." She spills, and begins to quietly whisper her plan in the blond's ear. A smile grows on Shannah's face, "That could work."

Surprisingly, Blake was so friendly. Nellie wasn't surprised, because she knew of him as "Mr. Perfect". But she wouldn't tell him that, ever. He was really open to her ideas of song choices, vice versa. She even offered her free period that next day, and after school in the library. He often gave her a smile that made her heart flutter and her head spin. It made her feel so.. happy to know that they could be friends, or something more.

But that was highly unlikely, because Shanna kept her eyes peeled, like a hawk. She made sure not one other potential girlfriend would get into a ten-foot radius of Blake Jenner. But because of the assignment, Nellie had to break down that barrier and get in, to sell the song. And Nellie could tell Shanna was not happy about it, and Blake was being cautious. She could live with that, as long as they won that week.

_**.Tuesday.**_

The next morning, Nellie sat in the choir room, her fingers dancing along the piano keys; she was waiting for Blake. The jock was finishing up morning football drills, and she pitied him having to run around in the cool October morning in a pair of thin football pads and a jersey. He was probably frozen out there. The door opened seconds later and the said boy stumbled in. He looked a little tired from running. But his lips were freshly bruised and there was a red circle evitable on his neck. Nellie tried to ignore the pain that shot into her heart as he set his bag down next to hers.

"Morning." He gives her a smile, but she's too busy staring hard at the white and black keys, her fingers pressing faint noise into the keys. She continues this, replying to his query, "Morning."

"So, have you chosen your top-two?" he asks.

"Uhm, yeah." she shuffles around her bag and pulls out two slices of sheet music. She spreads them out on the black top and his joins hers almost immediately. Her selections were Sara Barielles "Love Song" and Foreigner's "Waiting for a Girl/_Boy_ Like You." His were Edwin McCain's  
"I'll be" and another song she wasn't really familiar with. But she did like "I'll Be".

"I really like this song." Her hand brushes his arm as she reaches around him to point at the music farthest from her. He smiles slightly at the page, his teeth glinting through his plump pink lips. "You know it?" he asks. She can feel herself reflecting his smile, giving him the expression like _it's obvious._

But she doesn't say that, instead she glances over to meet his eyes, "My mom, before she passed away, used to sing it to me when I had trouble sleeping. My doctor diagnosed me with insomnia when I was a kid and, this song put me to sleep like a baby." She rambles quietly, and looks down to the sheet music. His gaze is too intense to hold. He continues to stare at her, before his lips part to speak.

"This song got me into music," he offers, "My dad was playing a show down at some bar a few years back and took me along. My mom was working so I got to sit backstage and watch my dad perform instead of playing videogames. This was the last song he played, like since. And one day he heard me singing in the shower and when I went down for dinner that night, he told me to pursue my dreams. And that's how I ended up in Glee club." He glances over at her. Her expression is slightly taken aback and it causes him to blush.

He _Blake Jenner_, was blushing. This was insane. Ever since she met Blake, in middle school, she knew he was a man of emotions. Usually he kept them at bay, but now they were spilling over like a broken dam. Nellie pressed a hand to his forearm, a small smile playing her lips.

"So we're both here for the same reason: to fulfill our dreams." They share a heartfelt smile, and Nellie realizes how close they are, leaning into eachother. She can hear the two sides of her brain screaming for her to go for it, or to stop as his eyes flutter. But the universe wasn't liking her this morning. The door slams open and the rest of the Glee Club comes in for a morning practice. Everyone is staring as Nellie retracts her face from the closeness and practically runs to her friends. Abraham is seething with a cloud of, "I knew it" 's on his tongue, and Dani is giggling uncontrollably. Blake is still at the piano, blushing as he collects his own belongings as the pianist comes in.

"Did you kiss him?!" Ali asks in a devious voice as Blake stumbles over to Michael and Maxfield, dazed. Nellie feels a pinch in her gut as she shakes her head no. The other three's faces are disappointed. Schuester comes in just as everyone is situating themselves in their different cliques. Nellie doesn't speak the whole period, she lets Blake tell Mr. Schue about their progress and about their song, but they both had agreed that the song would be a surprise.

When Schue reveals that they can won't have practice later that day, everyone is relieved. When Mr. Schue dismisses them, Nellie's first out of the room...

... and she walks right into a football player holding a slushie, but he nudges past her. And just as she sighs in relief, she can feel the icy cherry syrup dripping down the back of her neck. She can hear the football player laughing as he walks away and she can feel the tears blur her eyes. Suddenly, a strong force grips her arms and steers her along the hall to... _somewhere._ She can hear the person locking a door or something. And then running water.

"Here." A voice says quietly, and Nellie takes the dripping paper towel and clears her eyes of the few icy chunks. When she can properly open her eyes, she sees Blake wetting more paper towels. She can feel a flame flickering around inside her stomach, melting her insides. Why does this happen to her?

"Do you have extra clothes in your locker?" Blake asks, already peering around in his football bag. She silently shakes her head no. He pulls out a pair of sweatpants and his only clean Titans jersey. _Jenner 17 _was embroidered on the back. Nellie can feel another tug on her insides and pain shoots through her. He was so nice to her. And she couldn't repay him.

She pulls her holey gray wool sweater off to reveal a small camisole covering her lithe torso. She quickly washes the back of her neck and asks him quietly if he can get the sticky syrup off her back. He scrubs her shoulders and Nellie can feel his taut fingers running around her back like ants. It feels so good that she can feel her eyes fluttering and rolling back. He smiles when he notices this in the mirror.

He could see an expansion of skin on her stomach, but he tried to avoid glancing at it as she stretched to pull the jersey over her head. It hung to the midpoint of her thin thighs. It gave her enough coverage to slip off her jeans and pull on the sweatpants, that almost fell off her hips. He steps forward just as they roll down her hips to her knees. He captures them in his fingers and pull them back up, tightening the drawstrings in a triple-knot. She's watching his facial expressions as he tightens the knot again. His tongue is poking the left portion of his upper lip and his eyes are focused on her hips. She's never felt more exposed to anyone... ever.

He looks back up into her eyes, her light brown orbs reading something that he can't describe. Before he knows what's happening, she pecks him on the lips. The warning bell rings and she gives him a rueful smile, "Thanks.

Another slushie flies her way at lunch. It's from across the room, so it's a bad aim and it hits Abraham instead, putting Nellie, Ali and Dani in an insane fit of laughter. Nellie doesn't tell anyone that she could guess it was for her, because she'd overheard Shanna paying some football players and Cheerios to slushie her all day. This had been the fifth slushie in four periods. That had to be a record for one person being the target.

Each time she's seen Blake between classes, he gives her a smile. It seems secretive, almost as if it were their own thing, so she can't help but trade it back. She had to admit that she did like her new outfit today. She'd tied the extra fabric of the jersey back with a hair tie, and she'd traded her Converse for a pair of combat boots to stick the excess sweatpants into.

Suddenly, Nellie feels two sharp taps on her right shoulder. She has to admit that it literally stings because this she-devil has French-tip fake nails. She cocks her head to the side, eyebrows raised at the blond Cheerio hovering above her. It was Shanna Henderson, accompanied by Aylin Bayramoglu and Lily Mae Harrington. The three musketeers of popularity.

"Nellie, can we talk to you for a minute?" Shanna juts a thumb toward the cafeteria doors.

"I'll talk to you here." Nellie states, turning around in her seat fully, but making no move to get up. You can hear the other conversations drain out of the room like dirty water swirling down the drain.

"Okay." Shanna compromises. She leans down so she's in Nellie's face, trying to intimidate the dark-haired girl. "Here's the deal; I've got no idea why the hell you're wearing Blake's jersey or why you've hung out with him-" Nellie cuts her off.

"We're Glee partners, nothing more. You have nothing to worry about." Nellie gives her a fake smile.

The blond smirks, "And it'll stay like that." She declares. With that she struts away, her little posse sashaying off behind her.

Nellie bit her lip. Shanna did have something to worry about. Nellie was obviously, undeniably _in love _with Blake Jenner.

(The slushies stop coming after lunch.)

_**.Wednesday.**_

Nellie doesn't show for morning practice. Blake worries about the morning before. Was he being too head-on? He prayed that he hadn't scared her off. He even told Nellie he was single; Shanna wanted to be with him, but he couldn't give her a second thought. He storms out of the choir room, a hand running through his hair.

She's at the end of the hallway, standing in a group of her friends from Glee Club; the red-highlighted kid, wheelchair-bound Ali and a some chick-Beiber. They're all yelling at once, but he can hear Nellie's rather small voice cry out, "That's not true!" There's more of a gamble on who's right and his feet aren't working properly, so he opts to lean against the choir room door. To wait for her.

He's holding his guitar case in one hand and his book bag's slung around his shoulder. He whips a curl of wet fringe out of his eyes when he hears his name. "... you so like Blake!" The teen's eyes widen as he continues to eavesdrop on the clique hounding on his own potential crush. She finally screams out the words that pierce his heart so deep he swears he could faint and die right now: "I don't even like him! Stop making a masquerade over nothing!" So he was _nothing_ now? After the whole "I'll be" situation yesterday, when he thought they were getting so close, falters.

He was hurt.

He practically tosses the guitar case into the choir room and heads down the opposite end of the hall, ignoring the feeling of plastic in his gut. Everything felt fake, unreal. He heads to his locker, sticking his bag in their and picking out his text books and notebooks for the next period. He rests his head against the cool lime top locker. He ignored the icy metal under his forehead, he was numb. He needed something to clarify that he was still right in the mind.

(Nellie notices him as he runs off. She knows he heard and looks down, tears blurring her dark orbs.)

**Five periods later... **

Blake is first in the English classroom and he sits down in his usual spot in the back. He pulls out his beat-up notebook with the word _English _in calligraphy and begins doing the assignment on the board. Lately they've been writing poetry and today was like no other.

_**Invisible, by Blake Jenner.**_

_Unseen, that's me. _

_By her, that one girl out of everyone else, who takes my breath away. _

_I'd give anything for her to really see me for a day. _

_She looks through me, not seeing that I have feelings too. _

_And all I want to say to her is "I love you". _

_But to her, I'm nothing._

_Invisible. _

_She looks past me, down the hall. _

_As if she hasn't seen me fall, _

_for her so fast._

_I want our relationship to be real, to last. _

_But no. All I am to her is_

_Invisible._

Nellie had ignored him the whole day; didn't sit with the Gleeks at lunch, sat farthest from him in Science, the class they both despise and have partnered together since Monday (the day the teacher actually **assigned **partners) so they can rant about their hate to one another. They'd gotten so close over the past few days. He knew her favorite color was gray because it was the comfort zone between black and white. He knew about her obsession with milkshakes, and that every day she stopped by some cheap fast-food place for one. It 'got her through the day' she told him during practice Tuesday afternoon. He knew her older sister died of an overdose when Nellie was nine. He knew so much and for that all to be thrown away.. he couldn't tolerate the thought of it.

By now all of the students are in the room, also beginning the assignment so they can gossip when it is completed. Blake reads the thirteen lines he's written over again before standing and handing it in to his teacher, Mr. Reddiger. The balding man looked impressed by the quickness of the creation, spite the fact Blake was one of his best students, top of the class.

"Mr. Jenner." Reddiger calls after him. The caramel-haired boy turns around. "May I read this to the class?" His voice is quiet, only loud enough for the football-star to hear. Blake, slightly taken aback, nods. He's never gotten one of his poems read aloud before, and he felt pretty special then. But then he turned and passed Nellie's desk. He can tell she's trying to make eyes, but he refuses to give her the satisfaction of the pain she put him through. But then again, what was he thinking? A girl like her wouldn't trust a guy like him!? To her, he was just another player who only slept with girls for kicks and drank cheap beer at any chance he got. Sure, he wasn't the brightest crayon in the box, but he still thought he could be with her.

And that was a big mistake.

Just as he's getting back to his seat, a bunch of girls skip up to the desk, dropping their poems to disguise his at the bottom. Shanna and Aylin are amongst them. Blake hopes Mr. R would read his poem aloud soon. He wanted to see the reaction from everyone. Finally, after what feels like ages but was really only a few minutes, the teacher stands. He adjusts his blazer, runs a hand over his balding head and draws the class' attention.

"I discovered a fresh poem today, by someone I did not expect. It intrigued me that they had this pain, anger to write something filled with misery. This person on their outer shell always seems so," the man ponders on the word, "cheerful, that I never thought this would come out of them. But here it is, _Invisible._" The man reads the poem out loud, and as each syllable rolls off his tongue, Blake looks around. Everyone is silent, as if they had been tazed and were beginning the aftershock.

"Who wrote it?" Charlie Lubeck perks up. His is one of the many sheets still blank, besides his name. Reddiger glances around the room, as if he were looking for the face of the creator, and when his gaze stops at Blake, only for a second, Blake is shaking his head frantically, _no, no NO! _

Reddiger turns back to the curly haired football player, "I've been sworn to secrecy."

The class groans and Blake bites his lip.

Suddenly, Blake gets the cold chilly feeling in his bones that someone is looking at him. As he scans the room, he sees Nellie with her head twisted back to look at him. Her eyes are trying to read him, but he looks away rather quickly.

The bell rings overhead and the room bursts in chatter, about everything and nothing. Blake even catches a few girls talking about the poem, checking out all of the guys to see which one was heartfelt enough to write it and who the _'she'_ of the equation could be. Blake hurries of the room, making sure Nellie isn't within a ten-foot radius as he makes his way down the hall to his locker. But it turns out, the whole time she was right on his heels.

"So," she asks, "who do **you** think wrote that poem?"

Blake shrugs, but he can hear the suspicion radiating from her body, "Dunno. Maybe it was Max?" He offers. The boy grew up in the country, and it always seemed like Maxfield had paper in his hands for some reason.

"Max isn't in our class." Nellie argues.

"But Mr. Reddiger didn't say it was handed in _today!_" Blake shoots back. "And why are you talking to me anyway? It's obvious you don't even want to be friends anymore!" He knows he sounds like a harsh five-year-old, but he hates that she's so oblivious. Nellie's mouth drops open, her eyes wide and fracturing emotions like a movie preview- slashes of scenes, but not the whole concept. Her mouth is opening and closing, as if she's about to say something. But she opts to push past him and down the hall, turning the corner and the last he sees of her is the flash of her chopped dark hair.

(_She doesn't show up for Glee that day._)

Nellie goes through a monotone routine. Ever since Blake spat at her, she's avoided the fire path he's trailed. She ditched the last three classes of the day along with Glee. She wasn't sure she could look at his face without wanting to tear up. Now she's sitting on her bed with a tub of cookie dough ice cream and her friends surrounding her. She'd all offered them some, but they were chunking local fast food down their throats.

"... and I just- I-I dunno. It's like he hates me now or something." She stutters, sticking another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. The icy treat melts in her mouth. It makes her realize that her emotions may be numb, but her body's not.

_Numb._ A perfect word to describe how she's felt the last few hours. She didn't even have the courage to tell her friends that Blake was just forty feet away as she copped out that she 'did not' like him. But she did. Hell, she loved him.

Abraham rubs her back, his calloused fingers running along her spine and shoulder blades. "Do you think you know why he's mad? Maybe you could apologize and everything can be cool for Friday." He offers and she shoots up. _Friday. _She completely forgot that she still had to practice with Blake and finish her homework. If her grade-point-average gets dangerously low, she'd have to quit Glee.

And she was not ready to do that.

She pulls at her messenger bag on her desk chair but Abraham leans her back to where she's lounging against the headboard. He sets the ice cream tub back in her hand and practically spoon-feeds her the treat. She's stubborn, but takes the ice cream anyway.

"Want to watch a chick-flick?" Ali asks, picking up the stack of movies from Nellie's music library. She flips through them, selects one and reaches over to stick it in the player. In the end, Nellie falls asleep on Abraham's shoulder with the ice cream tub all melty and dripping with faint tear tracks still rolling down her cheeks.

_Nellie gets to the choir room early the next morning, her homework completed fast and messy but still correct. She still had an hour before she had to go to her locker, so she pulled a mix tape out of her slouchy shoulder bag and pulls the stereo out from under the piano and plugs it into the wall. She sticks the CD in and clicks 'play'. _

_Mr. Schue said he'd wanted emotion to flow through their 'passionate' duets, and dancing always showed Nellie's emotion. Her passion was from her mother. Her mother was a breathtaking dancer, and Nellie had grown up with petrifying dance lessons with snippy elementary divas, but the raven-haired beauty had always thought of dancing as an exhilarating painting. Music as the canvas, and the moves creating outlines and color, revealing the sweet silver lining of meaning. _

_Nellie kicks off her Converse, dancing around the waxy linoleum barefoot. She kicks her leg out, pirouettes, and just spins. She always loved watching all of the images blur and become faint shapes. She loves the way she can feel so alone in a room full of music. _

_The beginning notes of Christina Perri's "A Thousand Years" gently thump through the speakers and Nellie does a small hop onto her left foot, arching her arms and legs and moving freely to her heart's content. Little did she know someone had come in and set down their bag, and just watched from his spot at the piano as she continued to maneuver around the room. _

_The first chorus is coming up and the raven-haired beauty stops a second to catch her breath and locks eyes with Blake, and he gives her a small smile, stepping forward so they're standing so close and he wraps an arm around her waist, the other twining in her hand, "Dance with me." She nods, intrigued and shocked by his sudden movements. _

_**One step closer...**_

_**I have died every day waiting for you, **_

_**darling don't be afraid, I have loved you**_

_**for a thousand years. **_

_**I'll love you for a thousand more. **_

_He leads them around the room in a waltz, every movement fluid and fluent as if he'd done them everyday for the past many years. Their foreheads are bent together, eyes locked. He continues to lead them around the piano and spins her, dipping her back seconds after. His mouth is practically pressed against the nape of her neck and her eyes are fluttering closed and she can feel him pulling her back up and pressing a kiss flat on her lips as they begin to just sway in oblivion. _

_She can hear the faint sound in the background, a buzz in her comparison to dreamland. _

_Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. _

_**.Thursday. **_

Nellie is scared to see Blake again after her dream. She knows it's random, especially since they'd gotten into their recent fight. The next morning, she and her friends were eating breakfast in the Veitenheimers' sun nook, as she told them her awkward tale. Ali was ranting about how "it was a sign" and Dani was all like "I knew you liked him" and Abraham joked about it. They had to wait ten minutes for Abraham to run to his house and get his mini VW Beetle so they could get to school and they were a little behind on schedule.

Nellie did most of her homework squished in the backseat and made it to first period just on a whim. It was Spanish II, one of her favorite classes. But Mr. Schue wasn't in that morning, so they had to do a worksheet, all the while Abraham poked fun from his seat behind her about Blake. The caramel-haired boy only sat right across the aisle, so Nellie had to play her cool while getting him to _shut up._ Finally, after an hour of agony, the bell rang and Blake came up beside her.

"Hey, 'm sorry about freaking out yesterday, it wasn't cool. But I was wondering if you wanted to work on our duet tonight. We can work at my house or something." he offers. She gives him a chaste smile and agrees, trying to mentally kick Abraham because he was squealing all along behind her and she could tell Blake was frightened and amused as Abraham came up beside him.

"Aren't you guys singing a Christina Perri song for Glee?" Abraham asked as he glanced from Nellie to Blake, a smirk teasing at his mouth. Nellie can feel herself blushing as red as a cherry as Blake answers, taken aback and confused.

"Uhm, no. We're doing an Edwin McCa-"

"Oh cool!" Abraham perks up, "Will you be dancing?" The smirk widens. Blake looks to Nellie, eyebrows raised. "I don't know, will we?" Nellie shrugs casually.

"Well, I'll talk to you guys later, I have to get to Art." The dark haired girl shuffles off, cherry red still staining her cheeks. And the slushie she meets seconds later -the same shade- doesn't make it any better.

English comes way too fast for Nellie, and she can still hear the slight buzz of the mystery poem. She was surprised at how amused everyone was of this infamous poem, _Invisible_, and she was starting to get really curious. Mr. Reddiger even wrote the poem out on the board in his messy scrawl. A piece of paper, a questionaire sits on her desk:

_1) What do you think the writer was feeling?_ **I think the writer was in pain because the subject doesn't see him, it's as if he wants to feel noticed. **

_2) Can you relate to the writer in any way? If so, how? _**Yes, there is a guy who I really like but he doesn't understand how much I care about him; I just hold it in. **

_3) Can you guess who the writer is? _**Honestly, I could name a few people, but they're all probably wrong. **

She overlooks her answers, feverently erases her paper. She then refills it with bleak answers and turning it in without another thought. The area around Nellie's desk now smells like an eraser burning. This causes her eyes to itch and tear up, so she wipes her eyes and waits impatiently for the bell to ring. She taps her foot against the linoleum, twirling her pencil between her fingers as she glances up at the clock. She rubs her eye again.

'In a few seconds, the bell will ring.' She chants in her head as she watches her classmates take their papers up and set them in the bin on Mr. Reddiger's desk.

Finally, the musical bell lets out overhead and Nellie is the first from the room. Study hall, math then Glee and I'll be done. Then she hears Blake's voice behind her and she remembers: _She has to go to Blake's after Glee. _Ugh. She mentally kicks herself.

"Nell? Nell!" He pants as he overtakes the human traffic and grabs her wrist. She whirls around, seeing the cherry-faced quarterback. He catches his breath, then speaks, "You've got free period now, right?" She looks over his shoulder, a football player shoves past with his slushie and she feared that he would get at her for being seen with Blake. But he just goes along with the crowd.

She releases a breath that she didn't know she was holding and finds Blake staring at her, "Um, what? Oh yeah, free period now. Mhm." She scratches the back of her neck. He chuckles, his feet shuffling nervously.

"Well, Mr. Schue said we could use it if we wanted. So, you want to?" He asks, a hopeful edge in his voice, they hadn't hung out since Wednesday morning.

"Yeah, we can use all the time we can get, y'know, since we haven't even rehearsed the song aloud." Nellie agrees, letting Blake tug her by the hand toward the choir room. The two enter the room and drop their belongings on a few of the chairs in the front and Blake pulls out his guitar. She turns to him and gives him a small smile.

"Blake?" She asks, a little bashful, "Can I ask you something?" He turns to meet her dark eyes and bites his lower lip, wondering what she's asking. "Sure."

"Well, I was wondering if we could sing a song that actually is a duet, so we don't have to split the song up. I think that song belongs to a solo position." She bites her lip, holding back the anxiety in the request. His eyes are locked on hers, and she can't make any move to tear the gaze apart.

His teeth release his lip and his voice comes out low and throaty, "I think you have a point." He had to agree, he loved "I'll Be" but it would just sound choppy and awkward. "Do you have any new songs in mind?"

She races over to her satchel and pulls out a mountain of sheet music. "Well, I wasn't sure what kind of music you would like, so I went to the library this morning and printed a bunch of songs off the internet." This wasn't technically a lie, she did print them off the internet (**legally**) but she'd been doing this since she was fourteen. That morning she just happened to stuff a pile in.

"Oh, I know this one." She leans over his shoulder. _Foreigner: Waiting for a Girl/Boy Like You. _She knew it too. It was on one of her mix tapes at home.

"Can you play it on guitar?" She asks, holding it so the latter could adjust the guitar on his lap. He nods, playing the opening chords before singing the first words.

_So long,  
I've been looking too hard,  
I've been waiting too long  
Sometimes I don't know what I will find  
I only know it's a matter of time  
When you love someone_

Nellie listens to his angelic voice, feeling another pierce to her heart. Because she realized that she can't just have _him. _She opens her mouth and her voice begins maneuvering the words, and she notices that he glances at her a couple times as she sings.

_Maybe I'm wrong.  
Won't you tell me if I'm coming on too strong  
This heart of mine has been hurt before  
This time I wanna be sure_

As they continue to sing, their heads bow closer together. When the final chords strum off, she turns her head. They are so close. His breath is fanning her face and her eyes twitch between his plump pink lips and his gorgeous never-ending brown eyes. Two centimeters. Two _freaking _centimeters and she can kiss him. But she remembers her promise to Shanna and her clique...

_Screw it. _They each take a centimeter and meet in the middle. He tastes like Pringles and cherries, a wacky but _tasty _combination. She can feel him smiling against her mouth and it feels so amazing it makes her heart race. His mouth opens slightly and his teeth catch her lower lip. She gulps.

Suddenly, the bell rings overhead. They pull apart. She can't look him in the eye so she just gathers her things and mutters a 'see you.'

He's shell-shocked. He reaches up to touch his bruised mouth, just to make sure that that just happened. The bruises stick with him the rest of the day.

Blake sits next to Nellie in Glee.

His cologne is intoxicating and he's sweaty because he just ran a mile in PE. His hair is soaked with sweat and he's only wearing a wife-beater and basket ball shorts and she's just like, _Oh My God. _And of course, he meets her eyes and gives her a wink. Her heart hammers in her chest and she just prays that this can be over quick and she can go home and breathe again.

"Nellie." Her head shoots up to see everyone looking at her worriedly, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, just a little woozy." She tells Mr. Schuester before standing up with the rest of them. Mr. Schue gives her a longer stare, but shakes it off when she mouthes him an 'I'm fine'. He teaches them a short dance routine and Nellie edges it perfectly. She feels completely accomplished as she's leaving the choir room with everyone else.

She stops in the doorway, waiting as Blake talks to Mr. Schuester by the piano. The two men trade goodbyes and the teen goes to get his bag from his chair. He grabs something off the top of the piano as he meets her in the doorway. He gives her a small smile, wraps his fingers around her wrist lightly and tugs her along down the hallway.

She giggles at the touch and he joins in as they run off together toward the front doors of McKinley High.

It's raining when they get to the front doors, and Nellie looks down at her tank top, skirt and tights nervously. Blake offers her his hoodie. She ponders for a second before taking the clothing and pulling it over her white tank. It smells fantastic, like Axe and fabric softener. After she pulls it over her head, they take off to his rusted pick-up.

She hops in the passenger seat and buckles up, using one of the sleeves from his fantastic-smelling hoodie and wipes down her drenched black tights. He revs the engine and they bust out of the parking lot toward his house.

"Mom, I'm home!" Blake calls, ditching his shoes at the front door. Nellie follows suit, uncertainly. His grip is on her palm as he leads her into the kitchen. "Mom?" A woman standing at the stove turns around and gives her son a dazzling smile. In small strides, she makes her way to her son and reaches up to kiss him on the cheek.

"Who's this?" She asks quietly, offering a hand to Nellie.

"Mom, this is Nellie. She's my duet partner for Glee." His mother turns to him, a smirk wide on her face as if saying _you mean the one you've been ranting about all week?_ Nellie can feel a blush rising up her neck as the gaze turns on her.

"Well it's very nice to meet you, Nellie." The teenage girl smiles at the woman and Blake saves her from another short and awkward silence.

"Well," he speaks up, "We'll be practicing in my room. _Alone._" He declares and his mother smiles yet again, shaking her head all the while muttering an '**okay, okay**', before returning to her sizzling dish in the pot on the stove. Blake leads her back through to the front door and up the stairs to his room at the end of the hall.

It's a cornflower blue, covered with pictures. Magazine clippings, articles, baby pictures, posters you name it. His bed was in the corner, a bureau next to the door, along with a dresser to the right of the door. A nightstand neighbored the bed. He shrugged his bag next to the bureau and offered her to sit.

She plops down on the bed, him at her side in seconds. Sheet music spreads the bed in seconds like peanut butter on bread. They are leant against the west wall, sheet music on their laps. He finishes singing an hour later, "_I've been waiting, for a girl like you. To come into my life._"

"FINALLY!" They slap a high five. For the past hours they were trying to make the other mess up while singing, an 'exercise' Blake learned that audiences tended to do- make weird faces, have awkward reactions. She just laughed, conceding with the idea. And boy, did she make him laugh. His face was still the color of a tomato.

"Okay, so are we going to dance tomorrow or what?" Blake asks, "Cause Abraham was like weirding me out with all of his questions! They still make my head hurt!" He declares and Nellie fakes a laugh. She knew things would go sour with this topic. _Stupid Abraham and his stupid jokes. _

"Abraham is weird." Nellie declares, "That's all I can really say." Blake shrugs, feeling her uneasiness. Something was up; and it made him want to find out.

"C'mon Nell," He pokes her in the stomach and a giggle bursts out of her mouth; he'd discovered she was ticklish way earlier, trying to faze her, and it ended up working. She sighs nervously and he pokes her again. She gives him a raised-eyebrow look before letting him win.

"We were watching some dance show on TV last night and Abraham made a joke about how I can't dance." She lies easily. He raises an eyebrow.

"You? Really? You can't dance?" He squeaks. He's seen her dance before. And boy was she phenomonal.

**It was a few years before, and Nellie's mother had signed her up for one of the dance classes down in the city. Blake just happened to be there for his weekly singing lesson when he saw her portraying her audition at the academy. He can't remember her song nowadays because he was too starstruck from her fluid motions as she waltzed along the room, capturing a bunch of attention from everyone that the gossipy popular girls were silent. **

**He watched her so long that his mom stepped up beside him and watched her too, "Isn't that beautiful?" She asks quietly, not wanting to disturb the trance her son was currently in. He nods his head, continuing to watch her to the finish point of her routine. **

**Silence. **

**Blake had crossed his fingers behind his back, double crossed. His wrists were even crossed. "Thank you, Miss Veitenheimer. Welcome to the New York Teens Division." The woman running the auditions declared and suddenly, there was a thunder of applause. **

He didn't believe her lie one bit, he was determined to make her tell the truth. So he stood, his feet sinking into the yarn-mesh carpet as he offers her a hand. She stares at it, "What?" He smiles and picks up her hand from where it's rested on his bedspread and pulls her to her feet.

He unlocks his iPod on the dock and clicks 'play'.

_Beauty queen of only eighteen,_

_she had some trouble with herself._

_He was always there to help her, _

_she always belonged to someone else. _

_I drove for miles and miles and wound up at your door._

_I've had you so many times but somehow I want more. _

He wraps his arms around her waist, hers around his neck. Slowly they sway, and their foreheads bend together and he whispers slowly, "See?" as he twirls her and dips her back. She lets him guide her around the room, passing his buzzing cell phone repeatedly, but it's never heard over "She Will Be Loved". When the song ends, he leans forward to kiss her one last time before she leaves for the night. It's soft, sweet and it leaves her dizzy (yet again).

She can still feel his lips on hers when she gets through her back door a half hour later.

The nerves set in that night for Nellie.

She tossed and turned in her covers, locking and unlocking herself in twisting agony. Tomorrow, she would get up and get dressed at six a.m., eat breakfast and sit through periods one through four. She'd then go to lunch for a half hour and sit with the Glee kids and sit through periods five through seven.

Then she would sit through Glee, listening to all of the other duets before singing hers and Blake's.

She really wants to be a success for him. He's been so patient through everything with her, and made her laugh and want to cry. He had made her feel so many emotions, and spite the fact she shouldn't.. she loved it. But then there was the pressures.

The slushies, the Cheerios and Shanna...

Nellie whips up as if she's just had a bad nightmare. Nellie Veitenheimer kissed Blake Jenner, Shanna Henderson's _boyfriend, _twice. She swings her legs over the edge of her bed, resting her elbows and putting her head in her hands. _Oh God, Oh God, Oh God. _

She didn't sleep a wink that night.

_**.Friday.**_

Blake texted her that morning: _Choir room, 7:20? ;) _ She glances at her clock. Six-fifteen a.m. She scrambles up from her sleep mode and heads toward the bathroom to shower. Ten minutes later she runs into her room and grabs a pair of ripped jeans and her The Cab band tank top to wear for the day. She changes and heads back to the bathroom to thicken some eyeliner and mascara around her lids. She dashes a stroke of blush and paints her lips with her lipgloss wand.

Seven-oh-one. _Shit. _

She shoves her feet into a pair of boots and grabs her bag and chocolate-leather jacket. "Bye, mom!" she calls as she flings open the door and runs out into the icy cold air. The sky is gray and the wind whiplashes her freezing chopped locks into her face, smearing a slight bit of her makeup. She runs the rest of the way, getting to the front doors of McKinley at seven-seventeen. She clomps down the hall to exchange her bag for her first period belongings and trudges toward the choir room. But stops short.

Because two people are leant against that said door right now, lips locked. Blake Jenner and Shanna Henderson. Nellie stares, _What the...?!_ And runs off before they can see her. But Shanna hears her though, and a smirk is brought to her face.

"See ya later, loverboy." She calls over her shoulder, skipping off to her locker to retrieve her books for first period.

Dani Shay gets to school earlier than others. So she wasn't surprised when the halls were empty as she walked along, looking for her locker's hall. What she **was **surprised to see was Blake Jenner leaning against the locker neighboring hers. That can't be right; Blake's locker is two halls up. She plans on ignoring him as she walks up and twists the combination dial to open her locker.

"Hey." Blake offers.

"Hi?" To heck with it, Dani muses.

"Dani, right? Dani Shay?" The girl-Beiber look-alike nods, "I need your help."

Abraham is just walking through the doors of McKinley when he gets a text message from Dani: **Get 2 school ASAP; find N. **Abraham, amused by the vague message, searches anyway. He wanders down the hall by their lockers, peeks in the auditorium, but stops dead when he hears crying coming from the girls' bathroom in the choir hallway. He races there, but slows his steps to the bathroom. He shyly knocks on the door, "Nell?"

"Go away!" Nellie snaps. Abraham struts right in there and kneels next to the stall where the uncontrollable sobs are retching from. Seconds after, he begins to speak, "Nell, it's okay."

There's a click as the door unlocks and the creak as the stall door is pulled open. Nellie is bent over on the closed toilet seat, tears rolling from her eyes. Abraham glances down to make sure Nellie's wrist is still clean of scratches. A bright red one on her wrist has peeled skin. He doesn't flip out like she thought he would; instead he pressed a kiss against the cut and interlaces their fingers. "Blake's looking for you." (Dani filled him in as he searched for her.)

"Well he's a jerk!" Nellie spat, wiping her nose on her sleeve. Abraham nods understandingly, patting their joined hands. She just shakes her head. ".. we kissed last night.." The Asian boy's eyes widen. "And then I saw him kissing Shanna this morning."

Abraham shrugs, "I don't think he meant to; maybe Shanna found out and got angry at you?" It was a long shot. But it could've happened.

Nellie defies this, "He kissed back."

"But Nell-" The said girl cuts him off.

"It's okay, Abraham. This is for the best," She shivers before continuing, "He doesn't belong with someone like me."

Abraham frowns, "What's the difference between you and him besides your gender? Social status? Is **the **Nellie Veitenheimer letting some freaky cheerleader get in the way of what she wants?!" Nellie shakes her head violently.

"I won't." She clarifies.

"Then I want you to be happy. I don't care if you get Blake or not; what I care for is that you **tried**. Hear me?" The Asian boy gets a smile in return and together they stand up and ditch the girls bathroom before it is overtaken by the morning rush.

With a newborn confidence, Nellie stays positive. She discovers she's aced two exams today and has smiled so hard it felt as if her face would crack. She plops down between Ali and Dani at lunch, turning to the girl-Beiber with a confident smile, "You know what we should do?"

Dani gives her an incredulous look, before answering, "What?"

"We should _sing_!" Nellie declares, her smile widening, "Get the Glee Club together and sing or something-" The girl trails off and Dani leans forward to associate with Abraham,

"What drugs did you give her?!" Nellie and Abraham share a laugh before Abraham goes serious. "None." They sit through lunch laughing and joking, but Nellie keeps glancing over at the popular-Gleek table, where Shanna is making every move to stay close to Blake. Like now, she's practically sitting on his lap, her arms tangled around his neck.

Nellie sigh is drowned out as the bell rings, and she gathers her trash and throws it carelessly in the bin, heading off to English.

When she gets to room 211, she takes her seat and flips open her notebook and flips to a new page, following the assignment on the board and blocking out everything else as the room began to fill, Blake even passing her seat.

A floral-patterned Post-It note flutters to the mocha-colored desk, catching to the corner of her notebook. She picks it up and unfolds it. **Stay. Away. From. Him. -S. **She snorts, ripping up the small folded parcel and tosses it in the trash behind her. _Figures, _she muses, _in her mind, I still have a crush on him. _She finishes the instructions on the board and then goes to the breast pocket of her jean vest, producing a small iPod shuffle. She clips the iPod in her pocket and sticks a pair of buds in her ears.

She drowns out in the music, ignoring the whole process going on in the hallway.

Blake's at his locker, getting a notebook for English when he glances over to see Nellie heading through the door to Mr. Reddiger's room five minutes early, taking her seat in the back like always and flipping her notebook open. He smiles, loving how prepared she is. Suddenly, he feels two sharp taps on his shoulder. He whirls around to see Shanna standing there, hands on her bony hips.

"What are you doing looking at _that_? You're dating me." She declares icily, her lips pursed in a firm pout. Blake rolls his eyes, planning on staying silent as he finishes collecting his stuff. She isn't done though, "I mean, it's just an assignment. Tonight, everything will be normal again, and we can be the 'it' couple again-"

He cuts her off. "SHANNA!" She stops and stares. So does ninety nine percent of the student body. "How many damn times do I have to tell you?! We're NOT together! We never were!" Shanna looks like she's about to burn him at the stake. Angry, unshed tears are glassed over her eyes.

"Fine." She bites discreetly. "But I am not letting that bitch off. She doesn't deserve someone like you and she knows it. So breaking up with ME might be a lose-lose situation, Blake." With that, she slams his locker closed and walks off in a huff. He hears some huffs, guffaws and even whistling after Shanna turns the corner. Blake can feel his face release the fire-engine heat it caused and he breathes out, his shoulders lifting the invisible weights they'd been housing the last few months.

With that, he finished gathering his things and almost skipped into Mr. Reddiger's room. At Glee Club, he would sweep Nellie off her feet, a win-win situation. Nellie as his girlfriend and a pissed off Shanna Henderson.

The last half of the day went fast and Blake was excited. The feeling practically radiated off him and slamming onto the other people in the hallway. Finally, he was getting to the choir room and everyone else was present. But Shanna's seat was empty. Probably crying into her pillow about the public humiliation this incident had caused her.

He plopped down in his seat next to his partner, smile never leaving his face. Mr. Schue drew the partners' names out of a hat and he and Nellie were last, so they had to sit through five performances before them, but no matter how funny or stupid they were -like Aylin singing hers and Shanna's duet alone- Blake was just praying that they would all just quicken their pace to his and Nellie's performance.

"And last, but not least, Mr. Blake Jenner and Ms. Nellie Veitenheimer." Mr. Schue states in his emcee voice. The two take the floor and Blake begins singing, eventually melding his and Nellie's voices together. As both sang, they held hands and looked into eachother's eyes thoughtfully; Blake even messed up a verse because he was so into it, ignoring the chuckles rising from the room.

"_-__For a girl/boy like you to come into my life__."_ The two finish, and give a gentle bow, after Blake kisses her forehead. Hey, you have to milk it to sell it, right? But Blake didn't stop right there, instead he stretches down and places a soft kiss against her lips. His arms tangle around her waist and her arms are around his neck. Catcalls and whoops are tattooing themselves around the room as Blake gently pulls away, their foreheads touching.

"What about Shanna? She doesn't want me-" Nellie whispers under the hollers. Blake can feel a smile etching across his features as he reaches down to kiss her again.

"Broke up-"

"Just shut up and kiss me." He grins at her demand and places his lips over hers again, praying he'd never have to lose the taste of her lips on his tongue.

_**Fin. **_

_xx_

_Thoughts? Took me over a week to write, thanks to Glee's Pilot and a bunch of Youtube. Thanks.:) Feedback please;)_


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